In many places throughout the Malay-speaking “Nusantara,” the sentence “Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa” (Language is the soul of the people/nation/race) is a sentiment that is heavily echoed. Growing up, I realised that the Bahasa (language) I spoke at home does not belong to the standardised Bahasa. For example, my family says “Mika” (pronounced like mi-ke) instead of the standardised mereka (them).

Beyond specific words that found itself displaced outside of my family’s home, my family’s tongue was also peppered with sounds that didn’t necessarily make sense as words but made complete sense as verbal expressions. My grandfather would often say “Iye” (pronounced like eee-yeay!)—an elongated, exaggerated sigh—when he is annoyed or bothered. When my paternal uncles married Singaporean Malays, their partners were often shocked every time they discovered a new expression from my family’s verbal lexicon.

For the first part of this exercise, I would like for all to think of a verbal expression used in your family that may or may not be indicative to your family’s heritage. Based on what you have shared, I will be writing a script to loosely tie together the narratives accompanying these expressions. On a later date, we will read the script out together over Zoom to create an audio document for this exercise.

(See also unofficial languages, syntax, etymology, baby talk)

11/08/2020

Hello creaturely friends, welcome to the creaturely channel! Considering the prevalence of animal imagery in Nusantara, it would be a disservice to not have a conversation about the animal.

It is useful to regard the epithet “creaturely” as an idea that occupies an interstitial (see liminality) space between the human and animal, since the animal is typically understood and evaluated in relation to the human. Consider how calling a tiger euphemistically as “grandpa” or “grandma” may save you from being its prey in the Malay and Sundanese forests; how the duck signifies a “lazy wife” while the hen is a “responsible wife” in a northeastern Thai village; how a sports centre and a giant seawall were designed to replicate the shape of Indonesia’s Garuda; or how conveniently gendered were the leonine characters of Lyo and Merly in Singapore.

Why are animals good to think with? Not only do animals represent, they perform and animate the very ideas and ideologies (see tradition as ideology) we ascribe to them. Over the next few days, I will be sharing plenty of texts and images on animal iconography, symbolism, and metaphor. Feel free to respond or share anything you find “creaturely” here too, from animals to animal-like creatures, from monsters to mythical chimeras.

This channel will culminate in a Zoom discussion happening this month. After which each will be asked to fill up a simple Google Form and think of which animals (or which animal parts) best characterise your involvement in this project thus far. Your response will be used to imagine what kind of a composite creature we are as a thinking collective.

13/08/2020

Let me begin with one of the most prominent charismatic megafaunas in the region – tiger. There exists a form of sacred tradition (see tradition as ideology) in Nusantara called the mystical knowledge of the tiger (“ilmu harimau”, “ngelmu macan”, etc.), which is inherited through generations as ancestral knowledge. It is believed that the knowledge enables one to become a weretiger, thus acquiring preternatural power and invincibility (“kekebalan” or “kedigdayaan”) that must be cautiously deployed. The spirit of the ancestral tiger could also be summoned if your fight is considered virtuous. Accounts of how spirits of ancestral tigers had assisted Indonesia’s anti-colonial resistance abound. If you have come across related accounts on tigers or other animals possessing apotropaic traits, feel free to share.

Tiger puppet. Source: Alit Djajasoebrata, Shadow Theatre in Java (1999, p. 54).

14/08/2020

Rikey: Hu Ye (tiger lord, 虎爺) is a very popular worship in Taiwan. We even produced the movies about Hu Ye!

Mandarin-language Wikipedia page on Hu Ye (Tiger Lord)

Mandarin-language Wikipedia page on Flag of the Democratic State of Taiwan

There is a Taoist temple in Melaka that still honours Hu Ye too. Tan Chee Beng wrote an account about it in his book “Chinese Religion in Malaysia: Temples and Communities” (2018). Hu Ye is sometimes called “虎将军” (Tiger General), whose birthday is observed annually, usually a few weeks after Chinese New Year (not too sure which exact date of the lunar calendar). Chee Beng observed that the devotees touched the mouth of a tiger statue and uttered the name, age, and address of the person to be blessed, and said “保平安，好赚吃” (bo pingan, hou tanziah) in Hokkien, meaning “bless peace and success in work”.

Another deified tiger not unlike “Hu Ye”? This is a talismanic panel of the Tiger of Ali (“macan Ali”, sometimes “harimau Allah” or “singa Ali”). The imagery originates from the “Lion of Ali”, representing Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. For Ali’s enviable gallantry in battle, Muhammad conferred on him the epithet “Asadullāh”, the “Lion of Allah”. But when this Islamic legend reached Southeast Asian shores, the narrative was localised, and the “lion” became a “tiger”. The calligraphic body is inscribed with the Islamic creed: “there’s no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God”.

Macan Ali wooden panel, Cirebon, mid 20th century. Collection of Asian Civilisations Museum.

16/08/2020

I have come across an oral account in Indramayu claiming that Indonesia would not have achieved its independence without the help of ancestral white tigers. These are unseen beings (“ghaib”) so one should not expect a description of their physical appearance. They are believed to be the descendants of the revered Sundanese king Prabu Siliwangi. To him, Indonesia’s limited military stood little chance against the Dutch, but it was the sacred knowledge of the tiger (“ngelmu macan”) that had enabled the army to remain invulnerable (“kebal”) to any weaponry. Shown in this painting is a contemporary depiction of Prabu Siliwangi with a white tiger. It was painted by Ridho in 2004, who was meditating (“tafakur”) in the Sancang forest, before the spectre of the king struck him, compelling him to produce this work.

If you are interested to learn more about the notion of the unseen or “ghaib”, there’s a wonderful paper by Syaheedah Iskandar. Article on Project Muse titled “Making Space for the Ghaib (Unseen)” by Syaheedah Iskandar

Sri Baduga Maharaja Prabu Siliwangi (by Ridho), Garut, 2004, painting. Collection of Keraton Kasepuhan Cirebon.

18/08/2020

It was a hush-hush topic whenever I queried about “pamacan” (becoming tigers) and “macan daden” or “harimau jadian” (weretigers) – a ritualistic practice tied to traditional martial art forms, requiring strenuous endurance training.

Sharing a page from Peter Boomgaard’s “Frontiers of Fear” (2001). A few scholars noted that certain physical features of weretigers can be observed (absence of the medial cleft), but I doubt this is always the case.

Weretigers in Sumatra and Malaya. Source: Peter Boomgaard, Frontiers of Fear: Tigers and People in the Malay World, 1600–1950 (2001, p. 188).

I find it interesting how the tiger has been used as a pre-, anti-, and post-colonial symbol throughout Nusantara. It can be anything! The calligraphic tiger shared earlier is interpreted today as an emblem of the Cirebonese Islamic Sultanate before colonialism (“ambing bendera negara Cirebon sebelum jaman penjajahan”).

Macan Ali presented as the emblem of pre-colonial Cirebon. Source: P.S. Sulendraningrat, Babad Tanah Sunda, Babad Cirebon (1984, p. 108).

But in the 18th and 19th centuries when the Rampok Macan ceremony was prevalent in Java (a spectacularly gruesome event involving a tiger and buffalo fight, usually terminating with the death of the former), the tiger was a symbolic surrogate for the Dutch colonial administration. The fight was staged whenever Dutch officials visited the Sultans. The killing of the tiger by the buffalo (if not by the spears surrounding the battlefield), was a symbolic act of eradicating colonialism, which had maltreated the Javanese people as represented by the sturdy buffalo.

Lithograph of Rampok Macan, a Javanese ceremony involving a tiger-buffalo fight. Source: S. Friedmann, Die Ostasiatische Inselwelt (1886).

Lest we forget the colonial origin of heraldry.

Malaysian Coat of Arms. Source: Akulamatiau/Dreamstime Stock Photo.

Singapore Coat of Arms, main gate of the Istana, Singapore. Source: Milnivri/Wikimedia Commons.

The postcolonial tiger as an anti-colonial inflection of a colonial lion?

Seal of the East India Company, “Southern India Including The Presidencies Of Bombay & Madras” map, 1851. Source: HUM 54 The Urban Imagination, Harvard University (Link)

21/08/2020

This project began as an examination of composite figures before I broaden my search to include imagery in general. So here’s one composite image, recast as a modern logo otherwise known as “Three Fish with One Head” (Iwak Telu Sirah Sanunggal).

Illustration of three fish with one head, Sejatining Manungso, Pondok Pesantren Tarbiyya al-Talabah, Keranji, Lamongan. Source: Mohammad Solihin (Link)

This talismanic image is really an “animal diagram” instead of a “composite creature”, because it exists only as an illustration (not a legend) expounding Sufi metaphysics. It is commonly found in suluk kept in Islamic schools in island Southeast Asia. The trifurcated fish represents a trinity: Allah (ahadiyah, dzat), Muhammad (wahdah, sifat), and Adam (wahidiyah, af’al). But it has also been understood as a symbol encapsulating the values of Islam (submission to God), Iman (faith), and Ihsan (spiritual excellence).

Dérah Wujud Tunggal, West Java, 19th century. Source: Th. Pigeaud, Literature of Java (1970, III, pl. 8).

Despite the Islamic references above, this image deserves a more polyvalent reading. Its provenance can be traced as far back to Chinese folk imagery where the motif is called “Three Fish Competing for the Moon” (三鱼争月, sānyú zhēngyuè). In Chinese, because the “fish” (鱼, yú) is a homonym of “surplus” (余, yú; or 裕, yù), the animal is particularly favoured for invoking the idea of abundance and prosperity. Reaching Nusantara, Sufism refashioned abundance into trinity.

Three Fish Fighting Over the Moon (三鱼争月), China. Source: (Link)

I find composite interesting because as an image, it plays with the relation between the one and the many, between unity and multiplicity, between identity and difference. It appears as an innocuous creature, but as an image it is built into a logic that attempts to flatten diversity. The androgynous composite deity, Ardhanarishvara, is exemplary for telescoping different cultic groups in ancient India. Authorities, divine or secular, have been obsessed with one-ness since time immemorial. Perhaps Singapore’s Merlion could also be seen as a legacy of this imagination? By combining the fish and lion, the Merlion conflates “Temasek” and “Singapura”, “fishing village” and “lion city”, past and present. Feel free to chip in if you have come across any other composite, multi-legged, or multi-headed animals.

The Merlion, Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (STPB), 1964. Source: The Straits Times.

23/08/2020

Speaking of astrology, in Southeast Asia, some animals are tied to different days of the week. This is a seven-day “rejang” compass diagram with eight animals, tied to “Isnin” (Monday), “Selasa” (Tuesday), “Khamis” (Thursday), “Jumaat” (Friday).

The diagram is used for divinatory practices to determine a person’s fortune, the appropriate dates for ceremonies or trips and more. Unfortunately I have zero knowledge on how to make an actual calculation, else we could do a collective exercise around this! The calculation technique is influenced by the Chinese animal zodiac system, but the terminologies are either Islamic or Indic.

Seven-day compass diagram of eight animals for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Kelantan or Patani, 1838–1887. Collection of Nik Mohamed. Source: Farouk Yahya, Magic and Divination in Malay Illustrated Manuscripts (2016, p. 131).

Another example with a different configuration. Bear in mind that different regions will have their own distinct methods and animal pairings.

Compass diagram of eight animals, probably Palembang, 19th century. Collection of Balai Maklumat Kebudayaan Melayu Riau/The British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme, EAP 153. Source: Farouk Yahya, Magic and Divination in Malay Illustrated Manuscripts (2016, p. 189).

28/08/2020

Of all composite creatures in my research, this eccentric one-eyed elephant-bull composite fascinates me most. The painting is titled “Gajah dan Banteng” (Elephant and Bull), by the glass painter Kusdono from Gegesik, Cirebon.

Banteng Windu (by Kusdono), Gegesik, 2018. Source: Kusdono.

Kusdono knows little of its origin. But based on his recollection of his late father’s explanation (almarhum Rastika, a very prominent glass painter in Cirebon), the eight limbs equal a Windu (the Javanese eight-year cycle). With one limb lifted, the seven limbs resting on the ground indicate the seven-day week.

The bodies in white and black represent the forces of good and evil, but their heads are conjoined with an overseeing eye, signalling the divine singularity of Allah. Those familiar with Islamic mysticism in Java may realise how elements of tasawuf (i.e.: tauhid Dzat, ittihad, etc.) are eloquently presented in this composite image.

A similar painting from his father Rastika. Collected by the late contemporary artist, Haryadi Suadi.

Take note of the “Three Fish with One Head” figure above it! The crane carrying a stick is symbolic of asceticism and the search of nothingness.

Gajah dan Banteng (by Rastika, 1942–2014), Gegesik, 1980. Collection of Haryadi Suadi. Source: Jérôme Samuel, “Naissances et renaissance de la peinture sous verre à Java” (2005, p. 122).

As with most composites in Nusantara, this elephant-bull seems to have derived from elsewhere. Very likely Indic, but localised in Cirebon (perhaps since time immemorial, but it could be a fairly recent innovation too) and additional meanings are ascribed to it. In South Asia, this elephant-bull composite is known as “usamba kuñjara”, “viraçuba kunçara”, or “vrsabha kuñjara”. Image taken from Ananda Coomaraswamy’s survey on Sinhalese art.

Elephant-bull composite (usamba kuñjara), South Asia. Source: Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, “Review: Basreliefs of Bādāmī by R.D. Banerji” (1929, p. 192).

02/09/2020

03/09/2020

Mo (貘), the ancient name for “Panda”, but mistaken as “Tapir” since the 19th century, was once described by Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi (白居易) as having an “elephant trunk, rhinoceros eyes, cow tail and tiger paws” in the 9th century.

The “Panda” that became “Tapir” became “Baku”, the mythical creature in Japan that can be summoned to devour nightmares. By the 19th and 20th centuries, Baku became extremely stylised that it resembled an elephant.

Woodblock illustration of the mo (獏), Erya yintu (尔雅音图), China, 1801. Source: Donald Harper, “The Cultural History of the Giant Panda” (2012–2013, p. 210).

Baku (by Nakamura Tokisada, 1915–2001), Japan, 20th century, ivory with staining. Collection of Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

From panda diplomacy to tapir diplomacy…

Tapirs to reduce Japan ‘nightmares’, 14 October 2015. Source: The Star (Link)

Just as the battle between creaturely ideologies (see nature as ideology) (or creaturely nationalisms?) persists, so as the competition of charisma between tapir and panda. The picture shows tapir campaigners hijacking the Panda World Tour in Malaysia back in 2015 with #tapitapir (“but [what about] tapir”).

Tapi Tapir Campaign, Kuala Lumpur, 2015. Source: Poskod.my (Link)

Bear in mind that there are more than one species of tapir. But the Malayan Tapir (Tapirus indicus) is often representative of this species due to its peculiar and panda-like colour. This popularity survey results are from Reddit: (Link)

Results from the poll: “What is your favorite tapir?”, 2020. Source: Reddit (Link)

06/09/2020

Here’s the survey* results. Apparently we don’t have limbs.

“Where would you locate yourself in this composite?”, survey results in Google Form.

Based on the results, I have come up with a description for our speculative creature.

*The “Speculating a Composite” survey asks: What kind of “composite creature” are we as a thinking collective? How do we think in parts and engage with each other virtually as an organic whole? As part of this collective, what roles, components, or metaphorical organs do you play? How would you situate yourself and your participation in this collective Nusantaran body? This survey serves as a means of reflecting on our past exercises as we speculate about the ways that Nusantara can be learned, unlearned, and reconfigured in the future.

Our composite creature is colossal. With a whale body, it supports a world of its own. Extremely shy, it lives underwater and attempts to camouflage itself with its brown and spotted giraffe fur, but often to no avail. For every time it wishes to adapt to the fluctuating salinity of the ocean, it will shed its skin, temporarily revealing its bright red serpent scales, which many have mistaken as the Red Sea or the sunset.

This creature was once a triphibian, capable of roaming over terrestrial, aquatic, and celestial spaces. But due to its expansive size, swift mobility is a luxury. It used to have wings for flying, but having lived in the ocean for a prolonged period, its wings mutate into fins. It travels only by drifting along with sea currents, manoeuvring its trajectory with the fins. In the fullness of time, the creature has come to enjoy stillness, and its legs, having fallen into disuse, mutate into vestigial organs. Some of the coral reefs we witness today are part of its erstwhile legs if not its toes.

A unique characteristic of this composite creature is its diverse modes of breathing. Like a whale that has a blowhole on its head through which it breathes air, this composite creature has four blowholes. But its penchant for stillness prevents it from rising frequently above the surface of the water. Underwater, it has to rely on three pairs of gills. Make no mistake, these gills are not hidden within the gill slits like that of a fish but are located externally, like the salamander whose gills protrude from its head, exposed to the aquatic environment.

On the creature’s posterior, rows of lizard-like spines function as a supplementary protective carapace. They extend until the scalp, from which an infinite amount of gecko tails with regenerative ability branch out. Whenever a gecko tail is amputated due to harsh oceanic conditions, the tail drifts away and possesses a life of its own, independent of the composite. Over time, amputated tails accumulate and evolve into more sophisticated, composite life forms; and as they mature, these petite composites return to its ancestral composite creature, inhabiting the vestigial organs as they graze on the nutrient-rich corals, thus completing the ouroboros circle. According to a legend in Nusantara, the ebb and flow of ocean tides are largely a consequence of these life cycles taking place in the orbit of the composite creature. That is how the ocean became populated with life forms, many of which are still unknown to humans.

Nusantara remedies during COVID-19 pandemic: A compilation of botanical proposals by Sheryl Cheung is an accumulative exercise beginning in April 2020. It brings together a collection of remedies and medicinal plants from Nusantara, and gathered on Padlet with materials and documents ranging from news articles, social media posts and recipes to personal conversations and sharings from participants.

(See also new normal, mythbuster, grandma says, capitalocene)

What is made sensible in the archives of the illness?

Medical Records: An archipelagic archive of care is an exploration and re-imagination of medicine, wellbeing and care beyond the boundaries of the individual physical body, and remapping our collective relations and experiences across isolating distances.

For this task, participants are invited to contribute up to 3 artefacts. How was (your) health mediated through this artefact? What was your experience and story about this artefact? “Health” may relate to a broad range of spheres from the mental, emotional, physical, social, spiritual, economic, and ecological, to the political.

(See also expanded health, neural network, hidden, encryption)

AI-generated texts based on the submitted artefacts and written responses:

“The popular notion that ghosts are made of sugar and light themselves into spirits–even though they never actually existed to begin with. But then again, neither did time, or the witch. There’s also this belief in the power of repetition to heal, and I’ve been considering how this may relate to my mental health. I have a fairly social ph”

“I keep a hygienic pen and paper around to document my health, illnesses, and updates on my progress on my microblog, or slough of blood, medicine in a bottle. I have a comprehensive health record to document my ailments and recoveries, be it physical, mental, or spiritual. The record leaves me open-ended about my health and well-being, and”

“The Aquarium of the Pacific in Hoa An, Singapore’s second largest city, is filled with colourful aquarium sculptures and interactive “living exhibits” (ie, public performances) by ‘Art Biogesic’ (ie, white people art) from different cultural and racial backgrounds who submit their work to be judged by the public. I’ve had a copy of this”

“\f0 , cold etc) and the shopkeeper would recommend a tea for you, and you drink the tea from a bowl on the spot. Herbal tea establishments in 60s and 70s were the predecessors of bars and cafes in Hong Kong (for local Hong Kong people, at least), and even though they’re long gone, the names of some of the teas are still famous among Hong

It’s a tiny, stainless-steel bowl for boiling water. It reminds me of the saucer you use to boil water on in the morning. The water in this everyday container, which I manage to procure in bulk, is often mouldy or contains too much water, which I have to refill, which makes me thirsty. I also often see people bathe in the river after a

I received this in the post (unearthed!), and I’ve been trying to cultivate a positive mental attitude toward the dead. And mushrooms. And ottavarias. And other psychedelics. I suppose it’s because of this that I keep buying pills at the pharmacy and taking them on the spot, rather than waiting for the pharmacy to bring me a capsule. I”

“\f0 , cold etc), and the shopkeeper would recommend a tea for you, and you drink the tea from a bowl on the spot. Herbal tea establishments in 60s and 70s were the predecessors of bars and cafes in Hong Kong (腿池区泉体), and still play an important role (especially in the big cities) in the social and health aspects. \f1 \’92dwich\f1 \’92nd

\f0 , cold etc), and the shopkeeper would recommend a tea for you, and you drink the tea from a bowl on the spot. Herbal tea establishments in 60s and 70s were the predecessors of bars and cafes in Hong Kong (known in English as “Chinese restaurants”) and in Hong Kong in general. Today, many of them have closed down, but the Hong Kong

\f1 \’94\’4d\’9f\’86

\f0 \’af\’86\’91\’9f;s characteristics are those of a white fever\’92s epidemic, spread by the air of wind and rain, and turning into a virus that can be spread from person to person through body fluids. At least, that is the oral tradition I got from my grandmother. I also heard that the spread of white fever can

This is an x-ray of my femur bone taken at age 14. I had an extra bone growing on my femur (thigh) bone since I was a kid maybe. Growing up, my granny told me it was because I bit my nails excessively, and thus, it manifested into a bone growth. It didn’t stop me from biting my nails though, and it didn’t help that I had tonsillitis. I”

“Been paying much closer attention to the sounds in my neighbourhood since going into lockdown, and I feel like I’m living in a closed area of the city–aural trespasses being the least of my worries. I also feel that the isolation and claustrophobia that can come with being a low-level user of opiates, and the consequent feeling of being

\f1 \’94\’4d\’9f\’86;s kicking around in my head while playing Through Dark Souls 2, and while playing Bioshock Infinite, I was thinking about how the constant struggle for survival becomes an expression of individuality. This is one of the main themes of this mixtape, and in a way, it’s a repetition of sorts, as the repetition of the

\boscending\boshifting\cosphereingbspinishringinguprisingazzledowncolorsawesome

\b2dconjunction\b3dconjunction

\b3dnoveltycolorticoolcolortiflorigoColoringSquared

\boscenery\bioluminescence

\bionic

\bio

\bioGENE51

\bioGRADUATE

\bioluminescence

\bioinformatics

\bioluminescentwindow

\bioindex

\bioMUSIC

\bioPAGE27”

“\f0 , cold etc), and the shopkeeper would recommend a tea for you, and you drink the tea from a bowl on the spot. Herbal tea establishments in 60s and 70s were the predecessors of bars and cafes in Hong Kong (and even in mainland China), and the trade off between hygiene and functionalism was partly to blame. \f1 \’94\’4d\’9f\’86; But
\renewcommand{\bc0}\cocoonmode1\cocoonmode0} //sick nerd dream where you have this box where you can push buttons on and off and it can hear you and make you drink from the pink glass instead of the black

one\useprognosislabel{\crhopenabk2{\color50\cyr0\f0\rgba0\fba0\f0\f0\geometry0\rgba0\f0\rgnabk0\vert\f0\f0\bf0\rgb1\sb1\colortbl;\f0\ge

time I woke up, there was a scanning jpeg of me on the Internet. The doctor said it was a virus, and said it would be best to wrap my legs tightly together, but it didn’t work and we didn’t go back to him. Over the years, my sensitivity to light, sound, temperature, and vibration have all been documented as potential triggers for dreams.”

“drug is running through my body like water. It helps to calm me down, and when the flu strikes, I can just take a extra pill of this and that. I live in a fairly old neighbourhood where the people who get sick the most are the most exposed. Almost everyone I know who is socially active has some sort of disease to hide from their friends

overgrowth of skin onto my upper arms, and onto my breasts. The skin on my upper arms are much longer and thorny, and I have to apply a lot of tension to my arms to bathe with, as the skin on my hands gets infected and becomes like a slow-growing antibiotic. I also have to take medicine every day that contains silver, which makes me feel like I’m “taiging’! That I’m “acting”, that I’m “proving” that silver won’t cure me. However, over time, the white powder in my drinking water has gotten worse, and it’s almost impossible to drink the water without getting a reaction. The water tastes like coffee, but with much weaker caffeine content. It’s not that I don’t like coffee—

when I wake up. Sometimes, I think they are dreams themselves. I believe they are my minds way of telling me that there is nothing wrong with me, that I am not the freak I seem to be. I also find it odd that the men in my life are the ones who resist having sex with me because of my “gender” (in that they do not want to do “gender””

“with a local, we were diagnosed with eczema and told to apply ampoules and gargles to stop it spreading. The ailment, at least, is rather than itself a pleasurable sensory experience. The scrape of a fingernail on a glass door leading to the common bathroom is like having your leg spread for you, and possibly leading to a repeat

been subjected to repeated trauma. Throughout my recovery, I found it helpful to imagine that the form of treatment that I was attempting to heal from was actually a psychogenic illness. This allowed me to discuss the topic of self-image and body image for even more negative consequences. \ref {emergenciespracticebase} \ref {excerptsfrom”

Pulut hitam, pulut kuning, and all other forms that rice takes—this exercise looks at the commonalities in rice dishes, and the stories evoked (see sacred foods, sustenance, traditions). Kamiliah and Syaheedah reflect on glutinous rice and their relationship to the ingredients through a letter to each other.

(See also rituals, terrains, moyang, maternal)

Syaheedah’s letter to Kamiliah

Kamiliah’s letter to Syaheedah

Transcript of Kamiliah’s handwritten letter

Dearest Syaheedah,

It’s been a while since I’ve handwritten a letter—I couldn’t quite bring myself to type a letter though. I hope you, your mom, and the cats are well! Have you and your mom been making bubur pulut hitam many times since? Thank you for sharing your mom’s recipe with me. I was very taken with the amount of details and also the care taken with the ingredients—I also really liked comparing the differences in recipes. I feel my mom would have certainly skipped a few steps—she likes simplicity and efficiency.

You asked “So why pulut?” Terlekat (to stick) and terpikat (lured) are very apt verbs for this collection of personal experiences and narratives from different points in my life that have just stuck to me, and hovering quietly on the backburner, waiting to coalesce into a project. To borrow the analogy you used, ideas take time to ripen.

I can’t account for why the memories of these experiences and encounters with narratives have stayed with me, and even more unexplainable, how these disparate memories called out to each other through the years. The first memory, must have been when I was 9 years old. It’s all very hazy now—it was a school trip to a museum, maybe the Malay Heritage Centre, I can’t be sure. There was a tour guide… actually I think it was either the National Museum or the Asian Civilisation—it was about the history of Singapore, and the tour guide was retelling the legend of Sang Nila Utama, beginning with his father’s descent from the skies in some region in Palembang. Maybe I wasn’t 9… the more I try to recall the details, the more elusive it becomes. But this specific moment is always in sharp focus for me—when Sang Sapurba and his brothers appeared on the mountain, everything around them turned to gold. The version of the Malay Annals translated by Leyden made it clear that rice was cultivated on this mountain—by two women, Wan Ampu and Wan Malin—and that “they had large and productive rice-grounds.” In the wake of this divine phenomenon, “they beheld their rice-fields gleaming and glittering like fire.” From these same fields, they cut the paddy for food for the brothers.

Growing up in Singapore, I had no reference, visual and otherwise, for a golden rice field. I was very captured—or rather, lured—by this image of gleaming and glittering golden land, but it escaped me. Why did they descend on a mountain? Why did the field turn to gold? Why was rice such a prominent element in this story? My understanding was limited to my relationship with my environment—the gleaming I knew was of street lights and cars, the sunlight reflected off the glass skyscrapers. Rice came pre-packaged at the supermarket—so many times removed from the process of growing, harvesting and threshing (the glutinous rice for the pulut kuning we cooked came from Thailand). Rice has become such a banal affair—another product on the shelf. Do you think the rice are grieving at this lost of spiritual connection?

My second memory took place in East Sumatra almost a decade ago. My parents and I were in Medan for the first time, tracing my grandfather’s family. News of the return of a once lost family reached two elderly sisters in Binjai, where my grandfather came from. They invited us to their house—built in wood in the somewhat traditional style. Our “return” must have meant a great deal, because when we arrived, they sheltered us under one of those royal-style yellow payung from the car to the house. Inside, they had prepared pulut kuning, individually hand-shaped into oblongs and each resting on a banana leaf. In an intimate gesture, the sisters scooped a small piece and hand-fed us the first bite—separated bodies reunited through rice, the substance of kinship. At the time of course the gesture was bewildering and uncomfortable.

It’s this third experience that brought new found understanding—four years ago I was in Padang, riding around on the back of a motorcycle into the highlands. The landscape was dominated by three mountains that were in constant view—if I’m getting this right, it was Gunung Tandikat, Gunung Singgalang and Gunung Marapi. We’d ride for hours, and still they were there, like sentries guarding over the land. Eventually, we were released from the winding roads and emerged on a broad flat… I want to say plateau, and the road just kept running straight through the centre of it. If we kept going, I think we might have found ourselves in Pekanbaru. The sentries were no longer in sight, and those wispy clouds you seem to get in high elevation disappeared, letting the late afternoon light fall on everything. The grey gave way to gold, as far as I could see. With sunlight in my eyes and hitting the rice-grains, it did almost look like it was glittering.

I know I had seen rice fields before this. Perhaps it was something to do with Sumatra. These memories have now become so entangled with each other. That day in West Sumatra felt as though I was witnessing the very scene Wan Ampu and Wan Malin had witnessed. But somehow also the two sisters in Binjai were re-enacting the scene where Wan Malin and Wan Ampu prepared food of gold rice for Sang Sapurba and his brothers. Their gesture has also taken on new meanings—so laden with symbolisms—… I haven’t found the language to express this. I get a sense that I found something sacred—a substance I cannot find here, and I’m afraid that I wouldn’t be able to return to it.

The pulut kuning was surprisingly easy to make—or perhaps it’s my mom’s love of efficiency and simplicity. Although I realised she was quite unreliable when it came to verbalising instructions—the only reliable way to learn was to watch, then attempt to do it while she watched over me. There were also no standard measurements—only experience and instinct. Writing the recipe suddenly felt like trying to write a manual on how to ride a bicycle. The yellow of the pulut kuning depended on balancing the amount of tumeric—but how to make it glitter and gleam?

<3 kamil

1 Dec 2020

This exercise is to map down our eating-in experience during the Covid-19 lockdown in different cities. The idea for this emerged from playing farming simulation game Harvest Farm, as well as the shifts in consumer habits during quarantine-time, whether in increased consumption of food from local farms and businesses as a form of support, or to the heavy reliance on delivered goods.

Through a survey, participants shared about a dish they had during the lockdown or Movement Restriction Order in 2020. They listed down the ingredients, where they got the ingredients (neighbourhood mart, own garden etc.) and the food sources of the ingredients which required a bit of detective work (see origin, location).

A collective map is then generated from the data provided, pinpointing the geographic sources of ingredients from the dishes shared, and charts the narratives and geocultural entanglements associated with the selected dishes and food items.

(See also memories, fried, eggs, market)

Overall map from the entries of dishes:

You can also get a detail view of the map at this link !

Once you are in the website, you can navigate around by the hand tool and zoom function.

You may also view the data behind the map by clicking the spreadsheet via the top left column of the map.

# Dish 1: Stir-Fried Bayam

“I tried to make at least a green dish everyday. Well…that’s because nothing will go wrong with stir-fried vegetables (for me).The vege was delivered from Cameron Highland every Wednesday!” — Okui, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Note on #Dish 1:

For this dish, I was glad that I’m able to support local farms as their businesses were affected by the movement control order in Malaysia. However, when I was doing the mapping, I was surprised to find out that the onions and garlic which we used in almost every dish were mainly imported from India and China.

# Dish 2: Stir-fried rice cakes

“Balanced diet amidst the pandemic! It’s a dish that can accommodate any vegetables.” – Zi Hao, Singapore

# Dish 3: 韭菜花蛋炒飯 (Fried Rice with eggs and chive flowers)

“My father‘s funeral was on the 22July. We haven’t experienced real lock down in Taiwan. But since my father was sick for months before his death, it felt to me like something similar to those who felt during the lock down…. After he passed away, we prepared lots of meat for the ceremonies in the 2 weeks (頭七、三七、五七、七七). Together, we (my mother, my sisters, two nephews and their father) had the fried rice made by my mother on the night before his funeral. We ate very simple and everything seemed (back to) normal again.” — Rainfrog, HsinChu, Taiwan

Chive flowers from our family garden

# Dish 4: Sourdough Banana Bread

“Experimenting with sourdough” — Goldfish, Penang, Malaysia

# Dish 5: Thai Beef Salad

“My first foray in listening to Marion (from Marion’s kitchen) who’s a Thai-Australian chef” — Sidd, Singapore

# Dish 6: Rasam

“It’s a comfort food but also one that I have when I feel like my immunity is low; it makes me feel fortified again.” — Nurul H, Singapore

# Dish 7 :Chicken feet with vinegar

“I bought the wrong thing, supposed to be chicken leg.” — Ley Lynn, Penang, Malaysia

# Dish 8: Pumpkin Soup with bread

“I blend the pumpkin and mix with milk and butter. It’s healthy and nice to dip the bread with it! The bread is also fresh because it’s from a bakery nearby. I think they made the bread themselves” — Sew Eng, Penang, Malaysia

# Dish 9: Romanian Mama Beef Stew

“Shared memories with my flatmate Silvia , a Romanian old lady who just moved to London and worked in a British chain restaurant that served Asian food . When the locked down was imposed and without knowing when it will reopen, the restaurant have to give away all their ingredients for the staff to avoid further waste . Silvia brought lots of restaurant prep food and ingredients home to share with all the flatmates . From here , we knew Silvia better , communicate with very basic English , Google Translate , food and smile.” — Yuki, London, UK.

# Dish 10: Dahi Baigan (Fried Aubergine with Yogurt)

“Childhood food from Odisha, India” — Vava, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Photo credit: rudrangshu mallick

AN INSTRUCTION MANUAL

Using the ideas of a safety instruction manual that is typically available on flights, the following instruction manual was our way of unpacking and bringing consciousness towards embodied knowledge through gestures. Based on the materials that we have collected, we used gestures that were shared with us in our surveys.

Apart from highlighting the distinctive and personalised nature of these gestures, the instructions attempt to systemise the “absurdity” of these gestures which may be irrational to most, is rational to the user.

(See also instinct, oral tradition, transmissions, healing)

Sketching out a speculative curriculum on the historical and cultural conjectures of Nusantara, Teaching Nusantara: A curriculum-in-progress encompasses a series of discussion sessions generating imagined assignments and syllabi as an entry point into Southeast Asia, its proximate regions, and their further diffractions and manifestations in culture and popular branding. A potential tangent includes a study of the various readings of Southeast Asia and/or Nusantara, as taught from each country’s contexts and curricula.

Session 1: Dating Nusantara

✤ Precolonial dating and alliances—from Majapahit to the Malay Archipelago
✤ The flavour of timelines and calendrical systems
✤ Colonial to Cold War occasions—independent states and alignments

Session 2: Losing and finding Nusantara

✤ To be called by many names—calling ourselves, being called by others, re-identifying ourselves today
✤ Governing institutions and assimilation—religious/political institutions, and outlying practices
✤ Colloquial and vernacular “virtues”/”values”

Session 3: Closure

✤ Questions for each other
✤ Invocation or prayer or slogans

(See also time, routes, roots

The archipelagic is a union deferred, surfacing, spumes of history beached ashore. Fading between grains, only to be overlaid again.

Each gathering is kink: Nusantara, galactic polities, mandala kingdoms, low pressure zones, the Association of Southeast Asia, Pan-Asian Union, thalassocracies, the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Indochina, Maphilindo, the Cairo Conference, Darul Islam Nusantara, SEATO, the Belgrade Conference, Nanyang, SIJORI, ARF, APT, the Bandung Conference, the Intertropical Convergence Belt, the Pacific Ring of Fire, APEC, ASC, NAASP.

Gathering and separation are folded into one another. Incursions into solidarity, solidarities out of weakness (see cross-border solidarity). Each gathering carrying with it an abortive nucleus. On the summit, an unscalable dance of diplomacy, skirting around impenetrable rites of informality and nonconfrontation. Dancing as flood-waters creep up along the foothill.

A region is an Android app, a clapback, Taylor Swift stans, banana chips, a callboy ad, coffee beans, proselytization, temple archeology, a visual novel, a sporting event mascot, digitized open-access ancient manuscripts, a women’s cycling community (see procrastination, bots).

This is a weak attempt to think of unions of difference, the very work of unions becoming not-work (see anti-work). Along these swells of data, every gathering is synoptic, an instance of intersection (see ethos, unions as process). A gyre around procrastination and bombast.

Beginning with Hans-Dieter Evers’ observation about the evolution of the word ‘Nusantara’ into a “virtual Asian fantasy land” for online users, this digital tour and gaming livestream examines the sprouting up of digital folklore circulating the concept of ‘Nusantara’. Such digital manifestations often delineate alternate histories and re-imaginings/dissolutions of geopolitical boundaries, while at times maintaining troubling ties to ethnonationalist thought.

Traversing the Singapore and Malaysia-themed maps in the Southeast Asian server of online game, MapleStory (MapleSEA), the project examines the gameful worldlings for these geographies, alongside the various viscous bodies (see slime, orang minyak) inhabiting these sites of play.

(See also lag, ping, queer gaming)

Video of Twitch Stream

In-game map of Singapore & Malaysia in MapleStory (Southeast Asia server)

On the plane to Singapore

Departure point at the Tree Platform

On board Singapore Airlines

Arrival at Changi Airport

Central Way, or: Central Business District

Encountering Raffles

Law enforcement at the Esplanade

Black slime

Ulu City, or: Neo Tiew Estate

Arrival of the Physarocene

Attack of the Duku trees

Path to Krexel, the giant duku tree boss

Boat Quay, or: Clarke Quay

Quiet quay

Playing with Merlion

Mysterious pathways

Squid ink skies

Ghost Ship

Glitches and ghosts at MP3

Odd interiors, slimy sailors

Weighted matter

Bossfight: Captain Latanica

A portal to Trend Zone Metropolis, or: Kuala Lumpur

Conjoined geographies, collapsed temporalities, alternate political histories

Arrival in Trend Zone Metropolis

Old KL Railway Station and the Petronas Twin Towers

Kampung Village, or: Kampung Baru

Emo Slimes

Village chief

Questlines at the kampung

Fantasy Theme Park, or: Genting

Controversial cravings

Carousels and mascots

Beyond repair

Fighting mascot boss, Targa

Spoils of battle

Wearing enemy’s skin

Bestiary of Critters Encountered

Batoo

Berserkie

Biner

Captain Latanica

Duku

Emo Slime

Targa

Stopnow

Scarlion

YOUR RELOCATION MAP OF NUSANTARA IN FUTURE TENSE

Background: About Nusantara Archive

We want to build up a future archive of the region by considering different currencies, measures of locality, and forms of art practices in the name of ‘Nusantara’. The ‘Nusantara Archive’ initiated in 2017 by No Man’ Land from Taipei is an umbrella project including artist residency, translation, publication, and collective production, which involves Malaysian, Taiwanese, and Indonesian artists and writers with dozens of volumes of pamphlets with articles in both English and Chinese. The year 2019 marks the turn of Nusantara Archive from the ‘pre-nationalist or the spiritual mapping of the region’ (gradually) to the ‘shared history and process of decolonization’ among Nusantara countries. Here you can download the pdf files of the latest publications from our website:

vol 10th: Chang En-Man – Snail Paradise (張恩滿—蝸牛樂園；in conjunction with SB2019)
vol 9th: A Box Photographer (人像攝影師)
vol 8th: Paririmbon Investasi (超自然投資手冊)
vol 7th: The Broadcaster(s) (播音員)
vol 6th: Show Ying Xin (蘇穎欣)

Yet we haven’t had enough understanding of the territory that we used to call maritime Southeast Asia. What kind of boundary will we experience, and what kind of future shall we expect? And what are the issues we bring in this workshop cooperation?

(See also horoscope, cartography, symbolic attitude, spacetime continuum)

The Relocation Map of Nusantara in Future Tense

Hello my friends, welcome to “Your Relocation Map of Nusantara in Future Tense”, which is also the title of our channel in Discord. I spent a little time learning how to use Discord integrating with other online tools. By using these tools as my database of the background information and the platform to demonstrate the process of making the chart and astro map, (here we introduce the technique of the Astro*Carto*Graphy Map invented by Jim Lewis in 1997,) I want to talk about the implication of this relocation idea of my interest. I hope it is not too dry.

My proposition is to create the Relocation (Astro) Map for anyone in our group who is interested in associating themselves to a certain time-space coordinate of Nusantara. For example, I tried to create a map for our unfulfilled workshop on 20 March (later postponed to 12 April) and saw if I could explain it. Then I realized that it’s too many factors involved. But we just start the discussion by asking some questions little by little. So I started the channel three weeks ago before our online workshop. It is about writing up, archiving, and, to a little extent, working on a certain chart or map. My presentation loosely contains the three questions that I asked in my channel, and continues it with the fourth question. Anyhow, I think you can go back to our channel in Discord, after this workshop, and see if you want to develop a more specific astro map with me then.

Q1: Can you Locate the Southern Cross in the Sky of Singapore?

– I want to explain why I design the questions instead of giving you answers. The first one is about the Southern Cross. It is inspired by my childhood memory of a Japanese anime (The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross) song 30 years ago. Only very late (after 30 years) have I found that the image of this constellation represented in the song was actually a popular theme of many military songs(軍歌) during the 1940s. The question is, when Japanese Imperial Army used this constellation to call for identification of different Southern countries, Singapore is not really located in the South hemisphere. It is right at the equator. “The south” is a relative concept. It involves to the transferring process from the physical location to the abstract space of the constellation.

Recently some memory crossed my mind. I remembered a Japanese anime that I had always watched in my 5th grade, when I was old enough to remember its title but too young to feel its implication. It is called The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (超時空騎団サザンクロス) and it is a sci-fi anime released in 1984, a sequel of The Super Dimension Fortress Macross. In Taiwan, its title was literally adapted to the 宇宙再生人(namely, Reincarnated Spaceman) in Mandarin. However, the lyric of its Taiwanese theme still preserved the most important element in its original name, the “Southern Cross”, or Crux. 

Why does a Japanese cartoon has a name of this celestial body, if people can only see it in the Southern Hemisphere? As long as I realized this, I was quickly immersed in the archive of the Southern Cross, and the tie between this celestial body and those who look up for it.

As we know, the Polaris and the Southern Cross are used to point out the North and South directions. (The north and south celestial poles are the two imaginary points in the sky where the Earth’s axis of rotation intersects the celestial sphere.) The north celestial pole is almost at the bright Polaris (in one degree), or the “North Star”, useful for navigation in the Northern Hemisphere. The south celestial pole is visible only from the countries in the Southern Hemisphere. Similar to the status of the Polaris, the south celestial pole can be located by the Crux. But here are some other ways to find the south pole, since the Crux is not an arbitrary pointer.

The “Southern Cross” became catchy in Taiwan during the WW2, when the Imperial Japanese soldiers are taught to recognize it. It is said that the Taiwanese indigenous soldiers shared the memory of singing military songs together “under the Southern sky of the Southern Cross”, when they missed their villages in Taiwan. These soldiers are recruited by the Japanese due to their valiant forces. When they were repatriated back to Taiwan after the Japanese had fallen, they were still caught up in the nostalgia under the sky of “the Southern Cross”, the the nostalgia of an impossible return to their unravaged tribes. This memory is mediated by the songs after the war was over, and the soldiers were demised. In a Japanese Gunka (military song) published in 1940 in the Colonial Taiwan, “The Song of Taiwan Gun (台灣軍之歌),” we read its name in the first sentence, “Far from the Pacific Ocean, (it’s) the shining Southern Cross”(太平洋の空遠く，輝やく南十字星). Not only Taiwan but Singapore is mentioned in the Japanese Gunka.

In the “First letter of Syonanto (昭南島的第一封信),“ Syonanto, translated as “Island of the Light of South”, was the ideal name given to Colonial Singapore during the Japanese Occupation from 1942 to 1945. On February 15th, 1942, the Japanese accepted the surrender from Lt. Gen. Arthur Ernest Percival. Here we can see the ideal agent of “the South” (to the Japan Empire) has been transferred from Taiwan to Singapore, where a better future (to the Japanese or to the Singaporen?) is promised by the naming of “Syonanto”..Here comes my question of this section. As we know that the city state of Singapore is located at the Southernmost tip of Malay Peninsula, it is actually dozens of miles North of the Equator. How can we describe it as the “Light of South”? Obviously it’s from the point of view of Japanese, since both Taiwan and Singapore are the Southern islands on the Pacific ocean, with the latter further in the South. As we read in the poem “Syonanto” written by the Katsumi Tanaka(田中克己) in 1944,

I see the lines of imperial flags on the southern isle and think, oh how dazzling the Emperor’s reign!I see the exotic stars of the Southern Cross in my window at dawn, but the rooster’s call sounds just the same I see the strange sight of a soldier with a gibbon for a pet; yet in time regard it quite without suspicion.

I can’t help but ask myself, did Tanaka really see the Southern Cross in his window at dawn? And, if I ask you the question, can you see the Southern Cross in Singapore?

Q2: How to Relate a Place in the Horoscope?

– My second question is about how we can apply the horoscope system in subjects among different localities. As we always focus on the timing sensitivity when we cast a chart for the first time, the importance of the space factor is easily neglected in its framing of time-space integrity by some people. I make examples of Singapore’s Country Chart and the relocation chart for myself – although there is a debate when to decide a country’s “birth time”. It’s a question too complicated to discuss, now. Let’s check out how to make a relocation chart that I uploaded on youtube.

There are a few methods in (Classical) Astrology to explain the relationship between the place (space) and horoscope (celestial bodies, signs, or cardinal points). To apply a certain method of drawing an astrological chart or map, one needs to clarify her/his question for the place. For example, the country chart is considered to be the Mundane Astrology(世俗占星學). Just like any natal chart for any given (birth) time and location, the independent day of that country is used to produce the country map. Here is an example for a country named Singapore (A Capricorn Ascendant Leo). As we know this method treats the country as the individual existence, the 1-12 houses here are hence interpreted to the respective realms of this given “client”.

Among the three perspectives of reading a chart – the planet, the house, the aspect, the cardinal directions have already been embedded in the houses of the given client, since Ascendant (the 1st house) means ascending on the eastern horizon and Descendant (7th house) means descending western horizon. Likewise, MC (Medium Coeli or Zenith) is the cusp of the 10th house representing your highest aspiration, IC (Nadir) is the opposite cusp of the 4th house which always pointed to the opposite position of your MC on the earth.

One’s location is an inseparable element of their astrological charts; thus its importance can never be over emphasized in astrology. However, during the process of interpretation, the relation of the location and the client is easily underestimated by the practitioner of astrology, because the coordinate is fixed wherever you were born. That is why we need to look at the Relocation Chart, as well as the Local Space Astrology (the Astro*Carto*Graphy Map, or the Astrogeography.) Here is another example of how the Relocation Chart (right hand pic) differs from the Natal Chart (left hang pic) of a given client.

As you can see the Chart is relocated from Taiwan to Singapore, which the Ascendant Saturn moves to the cusp of the 2nd house, and the Neptune Descendant replaces the (Lunar) Node Descendant. Unlike the phenomenon of Quantum entanglement explained by quantum theory, our physical existences can never be in two different places at the same time. But how about the minds and the psychic energies of our beings? Or lets ask, can we find the most appropriate location for our wellbeing and future life? Maybe the technique of AstroCartoGraphy was invented by such callings and has emerged from the western countries in the 1980s.

As you can see the Chart is relocated from Taiwan to Singapore, which the Ascendant Saturn moves to the cusp of the 2nd house, and the Neptune Descendant replaces the (Lunar) Node Descendant. Unlike the phenomenon of Quantum entanglement explained by quantum theory, our physical existences can never be in two different places at the same time. But how about the minds and the psychic energies of our beings? Or lets ask, can we find the most appropriate location for our wellbeing and future life? Maybe the technique of AstroCartoGraphy was invented by such callings and has emerged from the western countries in the 1980s.

Q3: How to see horoscope sign(s) as the spatial metaphor(s)?

– Perhaps the key lies here is the common technique of how we see the relation between people and their localities in one horoscope system, and how do we consider ourselves from different parts of the world as a whole entity? The point here is to think about different parts as a whole. My question traced back to the authority of both western astrology and geography, Ptolomey, the founder of the Geocentric Model. I am not saying Geocentric is the one and only method – I mentioned him just because his model is one of the earliest to think of different geographic realms as one entity. (In fact, he had described Malay Peninsula in his Geography in the very early century.)

Before we move to the last question, let’s see how to make an Astro Map.

One way to relate the “place” to Horoscope is to look at the latter as the spatial metaphor, like, to see the 12 sectors, or 12 houses as different parts of an overall body or map we called Zodiac. It is the 12-house system of the horoscope based on the trajectory of the Sun along the ring of celestial equator, with the 4 primary angles (Spring equinox, Summer solstice, Autumnal equinox, Winter solstice) corresponding to the cusps of Aries, Cancer, Libra, & Capricorn. It is virtual since the referencing constellations are projected from respectively positions of varied light years away on the Zodiac. That explains the difference between Indian and Greek astrology after their fist separation centuries ago.

If you have ever heard about the motto “As Above, So Below”, you might know it’s associated with the Hermeticism (with the root of “Hermes” meaning Mercury) or the esoteric Western tradition which includes the astrology. The phrase is taken to indicate that earthly matters reflect the operation of the astral plane, or some will say the principle of Jungian Synchronicity. In astrology, the 12 houses also can represent different body parts (microcosmos) from the head to the feet, in which the symbolic spatial system is resonated with the horoscope (macrocosmos).

Back to our topic, I am thinking of Claudius Ptolemy, the first authority of Astrology, author of Geography, and founder of the geocentric model. He was also the first geographer to document “the Malay Archipelago” (Golden Chersonese) in the world. Or maybe it’s the same principle for Ptolemy to consider the different parts on earth as a whole, that we consider different planets and constellations are united under the framework of horoscopic astrology? Actually, even we can assign the Nusantara with horoscope sign(s), the sign(s) won’t stay the same from time to time.

Among the three perspectives of reading a chart – the planet, the house, the aspect, the cardinal directions have already been embedded in the houses of the given client, since Ascendant (the 1st house) means ascending on the eastern horizon and Descendant (7th house) means descending western horizon. Likewise, MC (Medium Coeli or Zenith) is the cusp of the 10th house representing your highest aspiration, IC (Nadir) is the opposite cusp of the 4th house which always pointed to the opposite position of your MC on the earth. (fig 2).

Fig 2: the cardinal directions of ASC, DSC, MC & IC on earth.

One’s location is an inseparable element of their astrological charts; thus its importance can never be over emphasized in astrology. However, during the process of interpretation, the relation of the location and the client is easily underestimated by the practitioner of astrology, because the coordinate is fixed wherever you were born. That is why we need to look at the Relocation Chart, as well as the Local Space Astrology (the Astro*Carto*Graphy Map, or the Astrogeography.) Here is another example of how the Relocation Chart (right hand pic) differs from the Natal Chart (left hang pic) of a given client.

As you can see the Chart is relocated from Taiwan to Singapore, which the Ascendant Saturn moves to the cusp of the 2nd house, and the Neptune Descendant replaces the (Lunar) Node Descendant. Unlike the phenomenon of Quantum entanglement explained by quantum theory, our physical existences can never be in two different places at the same time. But how about the minds and the psychic energies of our beings? Or lets ask, can we find the most appropriate location for our wellbeing and future life? Maybe the technique of AstroCartoGraphy was invented by such callings and has emerged from the western countries in the 1980s.

Q4: Why does It matter to Make an Astro Map of Nusantara?

I would like to quote Sidd’s words in my channel for you,

My general interest into chart interpretation is to go past the spatial rigidity of a place, person, historic event. Most of the time that’s our natal chart. (particularly only the Sun, Moon and Rising signs are the deterministic frames where we think astrology to be.) 

Actually I feel the same, as long as the factor of LOCALITY is concerned. I remembered one suspicion often aroused when people heard of the name of Nusantara Archive project. “How come this Taiwanese guy initiated a project in the name of Nusantara? Whom does this project aim at and what does it aim for?”

People ask so because when they say Nusantara, they always refer to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, or sometimes the Philippines and Thailand. Taiwan is barely mentioned. In making astro map for myself, whether we want to reclaim our origins like Pak Chong, the founder of Gerak Budaya in Malaysia, claimed himself Orang Nusantara, or we want to escape from the deterministic frames of the fixed coordinate, we can always relocate ourselves on this Map of Nusantara.

In the following cases I will show you how the astro map looks like, but we don’t have time to explain. By rethinking Nusantara as a set of fictional narratives of our collective, fragmented memories, we can always find new aspects of ourselves on this map, learn something from it’s past, and even deploy for the future that we want to share with one another!

(There are also some notes relating to the astro map, and I’ll leave it here for you to read.)

• The energy centres of an Astro Map do not alter the basic birth chart but rather enhance and stimulate it. These places can help you to better understand certain themes in your birth chart. 
• Should you come into contact with these power zones, parts of your personality can be more intensively activated. 
• A stay at such localities is not necessarily required to activate these energies. People as well as spiritual and cultural influences which emanate from these geographical regions form an energetic link. (astro.com)
• The task of the astrologer is to draw out these correspondences, to tie the macrocosm to the microcosm, our world, to make the connection from the abstract chart to the human experience. It is the task of translation: the planets are represented by mythic figures, and the twelve signs of the zodiac are cast by archetypal symbols. (Christian Campe, Astrologer)

(astro map on 5 September at 13:30pm)

Now You can see both astro maps here showing the strong influence of Neptune(♆) near Singapore and Malacca Strait, while this planet means the god of freshwater and sea, it also tells the idealistic, the borderless, the chaos, the dreamlike, or a kind of hallucination.

(astro map of my natal chart ^_^)

This is an exercise in creating connections between existing tags across fragments in order to multiply the different ways to speak about the nusantara. The task was to find meaning or affinities between tags across the various fragments, to build webs of entry points that could offer variegated pathways to encounter not just the different works, but in understanding the overlapping vernacular that make up our narrative of the nusantara. Facilitated through the form of a mind-map, it became a free-verse exercise in identifying and joining words and phrases that resonated to us, almost like an improvisational exercise that accepted all the scripts it was given. Each connection amplified the meaning and layers of each word and breathed forth wider connections to other fragments, allowing each of the works to nestle and weave into the other. The result is a jungle of pathways that can offer different experiences into “Pulau Something”, each leading back to its core: connections.

(See also archipelago)

Glossary of the Nusantara is a discursive exercise to find resonances, overlaps, and contestations over the concept of ‘Nusantara’. Borrowing from generative word games, participants list Nusantara-related concepts A to Z on a Google Sheet, following which, a discussion would be held between all workshop participants.

(See also nusantara, dissonance)